EMC's acquisition and partial spinoff of VMware has been very successful for both companies.

The new business will focus on big data and cloud and will itself be big, right out of the gate. EMC and VMware are dedicating about 1,400 employees to the new unit.

Some 800 employees will come from EMC, specifically from its Greenplum and Pivotal Labs acquisitions.

Soe 600 employees will come from VMware, including VMware’s vFabric unit (that includes employees gained from the Springsource and GemFire acquisitions). The vFabric unit offers software that run Java applications. VMware is also assigning its very important Cloud Foundry unit to the new spin off. Cloud Foundry is VMware's open source cloud platform.

This new unit lets EMC and VMware accomplish a lot of things. For one, it gives VMware's "platform as a service" cloud a better shot at competing against the likes of offerings from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. VMware's cloud was sort of an odd fit, since VMware also sells software that lets others build clouds.

Another big question is where this leaves EMC in its succession plans. EMC said a few months ago that longtime CEO Joe Tucci will stick around until 2015. The hunt for a successor is on. Maritz, who is currently EMC's chief strategy officer, is considered a top candidate. So is the guy who is now VMware's CEO, Pat Gelsinger.

The Pivotal Initiative will be formally open for business around Q2 2013, EMC says. That doesn't give Maritz much time to make it a success before EMC's corner office is vacated.